FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records by restricting the release of and access to those records. It does, however, allow institutions to designate and release specified items called directory information. The Universities full FERPA policy is available for review on the University Policy page.
Directory Information
Check with the appropriate office responsible before releasing directory information. Directory information is information contained in a student education record that would generally not be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. However, students have the right to and may place a directory hold on any or all of this information. Directory information cannot be released without written permission from the student.
The University of Rhode Island currently designates the following as directory information:
- Student’s full name
- City and state (only) of a Student’s campus, local, and or/home address
- University email address
- Major field of study
- Full/part-time status
- Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Weight and height of members of athletic teams
- Date(s) of attendance
- Degrees, honors, and awards received
- The most recent previous educational institution attended
- Class year
- Graduation dates
Additionally, the following are considered Directory Information for the purposes of disclosures made internally within the University or to the URI Foundation:
- Date of birth
- Home mailing address
- Information related to a public facing presence (e.g. LinkedIn)
- Personal email
- Telephone number
Education Records
Any record, with certain exceptions, maintained by an institution that is directly related to a student or students is an education record. This means any and all information, maintained in any medium, that is directly related to students and from which students can be personally identified. Education records can contain a student’s name, or several students’ names, or information from which an individual student or students can be individually identified. Directions for students to release information can be found on the RhodyShare page.
Examples of private education records include but are not limited to:
- Social Security number
- University ID
- Grades/exam scores
- Grade point average (GPA)
- Test scores (SAT, GRE, etc.)
- Class schedule
- Progress reports
- Race/ethnicity
- Citizenship/nationality
- Gender
- Disciplinary status
- Religious affiliation
And please remember, DO NOT:
- Link a student’s name with that student’s Social Security number or URI ID in any public manner.
- Leave information about all students you are working with in a stack for students to sort through.
- Circulate a student list with student name and social security number, URI ID, to take attendance.
- Provide anyone other than authorized University offices with rosters of students.
- Discuss the progress of any student with anyone (including parents/guardians) other than the student without the written consent of the student.
- Give anyone a student schedule or assist anyone other than authorized University offices in finding a student on campus.
- Post information regarding test/quiz or assignment grades with student ID numbers or names.
- Provide group assignment grades in a group email to students.
- Post pictures electronically or on bulletin boards with names or other student information without written permission.
Be sure to review the University policy on release and disclosure of information from student records found in the University’s Student Handbook. If ever in doubt whether you should release information, DO NOT do so. Please check with Enrollment Services first.